THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



109 



the nag of universal liberty ; and she holds " the open door " 

 of commerce. Her greatness depends on the open Word of 

 God ; and her conduct is professedly governed by the simple 

 faith and moral teaching of the Gospel of Christ. Thousands 

 of Christian men and women have gone from her shores to 

 evangelize the rest of the world ; her opportunity for glorifying 

 Cod and preaching Christ are not only magnificent, but 

 tremendous, and very solemn. Great Britain and Ireland 

 stand before us as a splendid and fitted instrument for bringing 

 about the realization of the Eternal Purpose. It seems plain 

 that our history was in the Divine Plan. 



Even if England is hereafter to be superseded by the rise 

 of some new " rod of God's power," she is certainly a prepared 

 agent for carrying forward the growth of the Kingdom of God 

 to a height which we are as yet unable to foresee. If this be 

 so, the hour has come when men of intellectual power, 

 industrious research, and historical knowledge can note the 

 course of events, and make a chart of the plan of the Divine 

 procedure " in all wisdom and prudence." 



Looking at each event in its own magnitude, we do not at 

 the moment perceive its connection with what went before, 

 and what happened after it. But when we lay the events all 

 out before our minds, we discover that they have been so 

 steadily working together that we are forced to admit design 

 in history. We see them fit into a plan, like pieces of a 

 dissected map. But with this difference, that each event 

 flowed out and gave birth to what followed in the direct path 

 towards the final establishment of the Kingdom of God. 



Make a list of the names of great men from the day of 

 the Apostles, such as Saul of Taisus, Justin, Origen, Eusebius, 

 Jerome, Athanasius, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Theodore, 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, King Alfred, Wickliffe, Huss, 

 Luther, Erasmus, Cranmer, Jewell, Hooper, the Wesley s, 

 Whitfield, Wilberforce. Simeon, the Venns, Buxton, Livingstone, 

 Hannington, Crowther, and hundreds of other workers in God's 

 inner vineyard, whom we cannot pause to name ; look, again, 

 at another line of workers, such as Alexander the Great, Julius 

 Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Constantine, Justinian, Charlemagne, 

 Henry the Eighth, Queen Elizabeth, Cromwell, Napoleon, 

 Wellington, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria ; or again, call up 

 the : uccession of scientific giants — it is evident that each 

 arose at the very period when he was wanted ; they not only 

 served their own day and generation, but were clearly necessary 

 to carry forward the Kingdom of God. 



